Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Michel Roberts on May 14, 2005, 09:56:47 pm

Title: Decline of laminates
Post by: Michel Roberts on May 14, 2005, 09:56:47 pm
I thought some of you might be interested in a couple of articles I have just read.

 I found them in the april edition of my contract flooring journal which I have only just got round to reading.

The CFJ is a monthly magazine distributed free to people in the commercial flooring bizz i.e carpet, resilient wood floors ect.

The first report is of B&Q posting a drop of 1.2% across the board in like for like sales in the 13weeks to jan 29. Much of this is put down to declining sales of laminate.  Laminate sales themselves must have dropped by quite a lot more than this  in order to have depressed the overall figue by 1.2%

The second report concerns a co I personally have never heard of called laminate flooring direct. The co has 27 stores throughout the UK with 116 staff.

The co has been placed into administration due to falling sales!

Michel
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock on May 14, 2005, 10:01:39 pm
you are right.carpets without doubt are on the way back. ive seen the change in kent
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Dave_Lee on May 14, 2005, 11:04:20 pm
Or could also be that the laminate market is getting close to Maxing out. After all are customers going to replace tired looking laminate with another laminate? Also it may be that a lot have learnt the lesson with one room or hall of laminate and wont be laying it anywhere else. What is a fact, ask any carpet fitter, there is and has been for over a year now, a lot of carpet being fitted on top of laminate.
Dave.
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock on May 14, 2005, 11:06:00 pm
dave i put laminate down in my lounge and hall, i found it very cold.presume others did now ripped up
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Fintan_Coll on May 14, 2005, 11:15:33 pm
Something is defenitely happening, in my locality I see a lot of cut throat pricing ,some laminates at crazily low prices, obviously sales are slipping. I have also noticed a move back to carpets in a lot of houses, ok there are still plenty laminates around but the tide seems to be turning.
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock on May 14, 2005, 11:25:23 pm
fintan you are right the prices are very low.if you look around new houses being built by the big developments its gone, back to carpets
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Ian Hare on May 15, 2005, 06:44:10 am
The general public have cottoned on to the fact that these 'trendy floors' are cold, noisey, dusty and look naff once down!

Most are getting the message that carpet is healthier too!

We all need to keep up the pressure and get the message across to everyone.
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: john rees on May 15, 2005, 10:13:36 am
me and the other half went for a chinese meal last night and the restaurant had laminate fitted, it was so noisy in there you couldn't hear each other speak! the owner told me that he's having a carpet fitted next week ;D due mainly to the fact that they had a leak from the kitchen and it's started to buckle and raise on one side of the restaurant(not to mention the damp smell) and he's afraid to use that side in case someone trips on it!!!and even better news is he wants me to clean the floor before the carpet gets fitted! ;D
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: therapist on May 15, 2005, 05:11:47 pm
Unfortunately we depend on the " luvvies " on TV to bring carpets back into fashion.

Just hope they don't go for Coir or these very light pastel colours beng fitted to many " new builds"

r m
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: DanielWelford on May 15, 2005, 08:21:38 pm
Ive noticed that everyone seems to have beige, or a shade of brown....very vogue at the mo.

Good for us as light coloured carpets show up all sorts, and thus need cleaning more often. ;D
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Shaun_Ashmore on May 15, 2005, 08:54:46 pm
Perhaps laminates are lasting so long that replacement of them with new laminates OR carpets will not happen for a long time!

Shaun
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Dave_Lee on May 16, 2005, 06:02:13 pm
You might be right there shaun. A good mate of mine put laminate throughout the entire down stairs area of his house years before they came into fashion. Four years ago he sold that house and built another one himself (with help) he reverted back to carpet everywhere except the hall and kitchen.
Dave.
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Gavin Reardon on May 17, 2005, 10:09:00 pm
Hi All

This was in the Local South Wales paper a few days ago


                                 WOOD FLAWS

                         PERIL OF TRENDY FLOORING

Thousands of people are ending up in hospital after slipping on trendy wood floors, says a survey.
Latest figures show the DIY craze for laminate boarding has seen accidents soar from 2,900 in 2000 to 12,300 in 2004 by slips in the home.

It goes on etc etc

Good news for the Carpet Cleaner 

Regards Gavin
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Mark Roberts on May 17, 2005, 10:37:39 pm
Gavin

I think most of us have been caught out stepping from a damp carpet onto laminate. The stuff is lethal, and would not be in my house just for that reason. That would be a bitter pill to swallow if you could not work for a while because of laminate!

Mark
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Ian Hare on May 18, 2005, 09:06:09 am
Excellent info Gavin!
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Dave_Lee on May 18, 2005, 01:20:09 pm
I did a job for a client yesterday. She had laminate installed throughout downstairs 2 years ago. She is having a carpet fitted in her lounge on top of the laminate next week. She has a large family. with several sisters, an adult son and daughter with their own homes. They all have laminate
, BUT are ALL going back to carpet, including her daughter whose only had her laminate down 12 months.
Dave.
Title: Re: Decline of laminates
Post by: Ian Hare on May 18, 2005, 06:43:28 pm
Great news Dave!  ;D

Did they say the exact reason they were doing so............
(e.g.) noise, cold, slippery, dusty, looks, or realisation of the health issues?
 Perhaps a mix of all of the above?